Everybody, Always

impeachments, who got the rose from a bachelor, or who got the boot
from a boss. What it seems He’ll care about most is how we treated the
people on the fringes of our lives. He’ll want to talk about whether we
gave them a hug or some much-needed help. All of this because He said
if we did kind things for the lonely and hurting and isolated in the world
we were really doing it for Him.
I can hear how the discussion with the first group who did the right
things but didn’t know it was Jesus might go down.
“Wait. Really? That was you? No way! The guy with all the tattooed
cuss words? The hooker? That guy in jail? The kid in Uganda? The
lawyer? The schoolteacher? The politician?” “We didn’t know it was
You. We just decided we’d love people the way You said to.”
The second group will be just as surprised by what they hear Jesus
say. This group didn’t intend to be mean or uncaring. They are a lot like
you and me in this way. I’m sure they would have been more than willing
to help Jesus if He’d asked them, but when the hungry or thirsty or sick or
strange people came along, or when people without clothes came by, they
didn’t know what to do, so they didn’t do anything.
It wasn’t that they disagreed with Jesus or folded their arms and
refused to help. Their mistake was simple. In fact, it’s the one I make
almost every day; they just didn’t recognize these people were actually
Jesus. These people didn’t dress like Him or talk like Him or act like
Him. In fact, the opposite was true. They lived in a way and did things
that were quite opposite of how Jesus lived. Some of the things they did
landed them in jail or left them in perilous positions. Jesus knew this, and
He said if we wanted to be with Him, we’d stop playing it safe and go talk
to them instead of talking about them.
I’ve lived most of my life as a second-group guy. I have simply been
too busy and too good at keeping my distance from people I don’t
understand to know what they really needed. Sure, I noticed them, but I
just wasn’t close enough to recognize it wasn’t just hurting, lonely people
I was passing by—it was Jesus I was avoiding. Sadly, sometimes I only